Newb Question

[916_Pilot]

DL'd SuperDuper Trial last night. Proceeded to backup ALL files from my current HDD to a brand new one. Everything seemed to work fine, EXCEPT that the new drive is a roughly 2 gb smaller version. Thoughts as to why?

Also noted that I tried to boot off the new copy and it worked to the point that it brought up my desktop, but wouldn't go any further than that. Thoughts?

Did I do something wrong in the copy process? I chose to erase the new drive and reformat, etc.. All I wanted was an exact copy in case my current HDD has a meltdown. This just happened to me a month ago, so I bought two new drives. Installed one, and am trying to back it up just in case.

Thanks in advance.

[dnanian]

As indicated in the User's Guide, some files (swap files, temporary files) aren't copied.

As far as the desktop not coming up, that usually means you have corrupt fonts. Can you start up from it in "Safe Boot" -- that is, hold Shift down from power on all the way to the desktop?

[916_Pilot]

I just didn't think that temp files and the like, would be as large as 2 gb.

As for boot up, it DOES boot to the desktop, but only that far. It doesn't connect to my router. It doesn't allow me to do anything other than stare at it. I can't click on anything, and the Dock is set to hide, but doesn't appear.

[dnanian]

Temporary files and the like can easily be more than 2GB.

Did you try "Safe Boot"?

[916_Pilot]

No I just chose to boot from that drive as opposed to the one in my Macbook, just to see if it worked. It allowed me to choose the HDD I wanted to boot, and login, but I didn't Safe Boot. What would be the advantage?

[dnanian]

Well, I'm trying to help you diagnose what is preventing you from starting up properly.